Moston services set for Friday

Services are set for Oleg Moston, an interational pianist and accompanist in Skidmore College’s Dance Department who died Monday in a pedestrian accident on Interstate 87. He was 77.

Family and friends are invited to attend calling hours from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Friday in the Skidmore Dance Theater, according to the Skidmore website. A service honoring Moston’s life will start at 12:30 p.m. in the theater. A reception will follow.

The theater seats about 200 people. Skidmore officials believe Moston will be cremated, though I’m still working on confirming that through the Tunison Funeral Home, which is handling Moston’s death.

Moston was born March 11, 1933, in the Ukraine of the former Soviet Union. He started playing the piano at 14, and graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1957. Moston toured for more than two decades throughout the U.S.S.R. with the Moscow Philharmonic Society, performing as pianist, soloist, and accompanist.

Moston immigrated to New York City and played for 26 years as a principal pianist for ballet companies such as the Joffrey, Alvin Ailey and American Ballet theaters, as well as for Columbia and New York universities, the New York Conservatory of Dance, Ballet Hispanico and Ballet Academy East.

After his family moved upstate, he worked as an accompanist with the Glens Falls Ballet and Dance Center. He joined Skidmore in 2005.

Denise Warner Limoli, associate professor who frequently taught with Oleg, called him “a master musician. His music was always beautiful. The dancers loved him. I loved him. He loved ballet.”

“With him as an accompanist, it was as if there were two teachers in the classroom,” Limoli said. “He helped to educate the students on the type of music that they needed to know as dancers, but for him it was like breathing.”

Oleg helped dance students recognize the importance of performing with a live musician, Skidmore officials said. “He would open the lid of the piano, and we asked the students to gather around the instrument and put their hands onto the strings while Oleg played. This helped them to feel the power of the music and to recognize that music must be performed by an artist before it is recorded onto CDs or MP3 files,” Limoli said.

Professor Debra Fernandez, dance department chair, remembered Oleg once saying that he played many places in New York, but “he always said that he loved his Skidmore experience most. We will miss our good friend and fellow artist.”

Moston is survived by his wife, Nina; daughter, Oksana Naumkin of Gansevoort; sons, Maxim of Brooklyn and Ilya of Atlanta; and grandchildren, Peter Naumkin and Gertrude Moston. His late grandson, Nicholas Naumkin, was killed Dec. 22 in a gun accident in Wilton. Memorial donations may be made to the Oleg Moston Memorial Fund, Glens Falls National Bank, 250 Glen St., Glens Falls, N.Y., 12804, or at any branch of the bank.

Dennis Yusko

One Response

I am “Ilya of Atlanta”. My first name being pronounced ILYA, but spelled ILJA. But that’s ok. I wanted to thank Mr. Dennis Yusko
for this article about my dear daddy. Honestly, I still can’t believe, he is no more on this Earth ! He always had and has special place in my mind and in my heart, he IS alive for me, despite of this terrible auto misunderstanding! Even, when we didn’t communicate (distance between NY and GA), I always felt his invisible presence near me, especially during my musical activities, wherever and whenever it would happen. I always thought: “how he would handle this situation?” and tried to be worthy of being his son. He will continue to live in my mind and in my heart aslong, as I am alive !
My sincere condolences to Nina, Maxim, Oksana. We maybe far from each other physically, but we are close to each other spiritually !